12th October 2005 - Day 9

That's it. I think my ears are going to drop off.

Of course not, but the weather seems to have gotten cooler. Looks like I should start wearing more clothings. Today, I left at 0835. Late for the bus, but still got to lessons on time.

The lesson today was quite terrible. I didn't understand what was being taught. My mexican partner for the Referat, Sergio, has decided that we'll present something about "The Ozone Layer". Boring topic if you ask me, but still better than doing something about German politic.

During lessons today, I learnt that Swedish guys have to go for military service as well as I heard the lecturer asked a Swedish guy about it. That got me quite interested. I asked the same guy:

"So, du warst beim Militär?"

"Ja."

"Wie lang war es?"

"15 Monate", he answered quite proudly.

"Oooh, ich habe in Singapur auch einen Wehrdienst gemacht. Es dauertet zweiundhalb Jahre"

"...", his face changed.


Hmm. I thought it was so funny. Maybe 2 and a half year is really too long. I'm not complaining though.

After lessons, I took a few photos of Marktplatz.

The Market on Marktplatz

The Rathaus

A lousy photo where the object of focus is behind the bush

After lunch, I hoped on a tram to take a look around the town.

On the Tram no. 5

Turns out that there wasn't anything interesting around town. Just a quiet little town. Maybe it'll get more interesting when the semester starts and all the students are back in town. I took a walk near the university.

The University "Gates"

Just in case you guys were wondering if I'm really in Karlsruhe.

It's funny. Maybe I'm not used to it, but diagonally across, take a few more steps down...

Blue Movie anyone?

Or would you prefer "live"?

Wah! Like Golden Village!

Eh...wrong time lah...come again later...

As I was taking the last picture, someone was about to pop out from the door. When she saw me with the camera, she made lots of noise (noise, really noise, like I splashed acid on her). Lucky for her, I didn't shoot her in the photo.

I guess it's a common sight here. Unlike in Singapore where such activities are well hidden on a certain few streets, out of the public's view.

Of course, there are more decent places.

One of the many residential blocks

Hah! I just had my dinner. Guess what? I cooked rice with a microwave oven! Together with the Narcissus brand of "Chao San Si", it was superb. The Indian Basmati Rice wasn't too bad. I think the Thai Jasmine Rice would taste better though.

In case I forgot, here's how I cooked the rice (after consulting my parents and doing some online research about the cooking of rice).

1 part rice
2 parts water
Medium Heat, around 12-13 mins in the brown microwave.

I don't really care now, I think I'll use the same microwave from now onward for my rice cooking. Yup. It's the old brown microwave that nobody seems to like.

The rice turned out just nice. Initially I thought it was a bit wet. But due to the dry weather here, it was just right.

Wonderful technology this is. My flat mate Stefan was amazed when I told him: Ich habe mit der Mikrowelle den Reis gekocht. Everyone who cannot do without rice overseas should get it. The disadvantage is that I can only cook enough for 2 people, since it's a small bowl.

Hmm. Maybe I can try some other canned food here with rice. So I won't have to rely on instant noodles and bread for dinner.

So it's off to shower again and more practise with german when I come back.